Networked nodes typically communicate with one another using a communication protocol, for example the IEEE 802.11 series of protocols commonly known as WiFi, HomePlug® protocols for power-line communication, or other protocols for communication between nodes. Some protocols are contention based allowing many nodes to share a single communication medium. Contention based protocols may transmit data on the communication medium using protocol data units (PDU). In a contention based protocol using the open systems interconnection (OSI) model, various layers may have PDUs associated with them. Some protocols limit the maximum size of PDUs. If a sender has a large datagram to transmit, the datagram may need to be segmented in order to be transmitted. A datagram is a message to be sent over a network. The datagram typically has a source and destination address, a payload, and other routing or control data as required. Datagrams that are too large to fit into a single PDU are segmented between multiple PDUs. The datagram is then reassembled at the destination. Segment numbers are inserted into the PDUs to identify the order in which the datagram should be reassembled by the receiver. Additionally, in some protocols, acknowledgements are sent by the receiver to indicate that the segment has been received. The required overhead of transmitting segment numbers and acknowledgements for each PDU becomes burdensome when the protocol uses small PDUs.